


Risk my life so I could have you

by pinkpurpleblue



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Explosion, Jim "Chief" Hopper Lives, Not Canon Compliant, Post-Season/Series 03 Fix-It, Prompt Fill, Whumptober 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2020-11-22 11:33:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20873513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinkpurpleblue/pseuds/pinkpurpleblue
Summary: Joyce won't be the reason for that little girl to lose the only family she has. And also, she maybe might kind of love him. Just a little bit.





	Risk my life so I could have you

So, Hopper was stuck on the railing extremely close to the machine they were about to blow up, Joyce had to struggle to even be able to turn the keys at the same time by herself, and both of her children were above her fighting the biggest monster thing they had faced yet.

"Joyce, fucking blow it!" Jim screams at her, she can barely make out anything through the thick glass separating them, but she knows him well enough to know the stupid self-sacrificial bullshit he's gonna try to pull.

"Drop down, asshole!" She yells back at him; trying to point to where she saw the ladder, their bickering and insults were familiar, they stopped her heart from beating straight out of her chest. There's a ladder just below the railing he's on, she can barely see it, she knows that he probably can't either. It's not much, but if it leads somewhere, it'll at least be further away from the shit about to go down. A slim chance is all he's got right now.  
Joyce won't be the reason for that little girl to lose the only family she has. And also, she maybe might kind of love him. Just a little bit.

"Where the hell am I supposed to do that?" He yells, leaning over the railings, seeing the far, far bottom of the long 50-foot drop underneath the platform, at the wrong angle to see the ladder that is probably meant to mechanically slide out, if the power wasn't screwed up.

God, she can't believe she maybe sort of loves that jackass and his stupid mustache.

She shuts her eyes and prays, which she hasn't done in over a decade.

"Just do it!" Her voice cracks, and she feels tears sliding down her cheek at the way he just pauses to nod at her. I trust you; he says without saying anything. He hurls himself over the railing, her heart skips a beat, and she hopes he caught onto it. She can barely even see the outline of the ladder anymore, the gate glowing brighter and brighter, and she knows she's out of time. She knows her children are out of time, and her breath catches in her throat as she turns the keys.

She shuts her eyes closed and turns her head, she can see the bright explosion from behind her eyelids, and the dull sound incredibly loud through the thick glass. It dies down pretty quickly, considering big the machine is, and when she finally opens her eyes, she sees the gate has already started to mend together, stitching itself up and healing.

Joyce runs to the platform she last saw Hop at.

"Hop!" She shouts, leaning over the railing. He doesn't respond. Which is fine, because the shockwave could've just knocked him out, he could just be passed out somewhere.

She climbs over the railing and barely catches the ladder. She hears Murray calling for her and she yells at him to get down here and help her. Because if Hop really is alive but unconscious, she knows she's not strong enough to carry him out on her own.  
Joyce runs and runs until she finds him. He's just passed out. He's just passed out. It runs through her head like a mantra, and her throat goes sore just from shouting his name.

He's unconscious like she assumed, and at the moment she's grateful for it. He just ran to put distance between himself and the blast, Joyce had thick glass that protected her fully from it.

He's covered by a large metal shield that she assumes is debris, shattered off of a wall by the explosion. It takes her a lot longer to move it off of him than she wants, even when Murray finally makes it to her to help.

Hopper looks horrible, and in need of desperate medical attention. There are burns running from his middle all the way up and down his right side, crawling up his face. She sees blood dripping down his ears, and his right arm is so mangled that she feels herself crying again. She prays and prays and puts her fingers against his neck, not trusting the slow, struggling rise and fall of his chest.

It's so weak, but it's there, and he's alive. She grabs at his mangled arm, positioning it over her shoulder and she feels blood dripping over her shoulders, but she gestures to Murray to grab his other arm, and he does.

"I can take his other arm if you-" He starts.

"He needs an ambulance; we have to get him back up." She says instead, straining at holding Hop up, having to awkwardly adjust her grip since Murray is taller than her.

They manage to drag Hopper into a cart and somehow keep him breathing through the ride down the long halls and the elevator. Joyce hears the sirens and a wave of relief floods through her. She screams for an ambulance, her throat about ready to give up on her. She lets out a breath when the EMTs take Hopper and put him on a stretcher, the weight literally lifted off her shoulders. They speed off so fast she barely has time to tell them Hopper's blood type.

She walks around, determined to find her sons and Jane before following Hop to the hospital.  
The scene is chaotic, various first responders and baffled reporters creating a maze outside the mall that had just barely opened; now being slowly eaten by flames.

Running around trying to find her sons brings her briefly back to the Russian lab, screaming every variation of Hopper's name (including a few choice ones that she wouldn't say around her children.) but she shakes it off, they had gotten him out.

Luckily, she finds Will and Jonathan together, and she's startled to find Jonathan and Nancy sitting in an ambulance getting checked out. They had told her briefly of what happened in the hospital, but she hadn't known if it was serious.

"It's alright, mom." Jonathan says, "It's just some bruising."

"Also broken ribs and a concussion." Nancy finishes for him. "We're going to the hospital, make sure there's no internal bleeding or anything."

"Yeah, I'm heading that way anyway," Joyce says, itching for a cigarette.

Their ambulance drives off without a siren, and Joyce turns to her other son.

"Do you want to ride with me to the hospital, sweetheart?" She asks him after hugging him for as long as she feels is appropriate.

"No, I'll ride with Dustin. He's following Steve and Robin's ambulance."

She bites back a _Who's Robin?_ And a _What happened to Steve?_

Instead, she just smiles, nods, and goes to find Jane.

She finds Jane wandering around, looking so much like a lost little kid that it breaks Joyce's heart.

"Hey honey, Hop was taken to the hospital, why don't you ride with me?" She says, fiddling with her keys.

Jane just nods, Jane looks so worn out and tired, and she just grabs Joyce's hand tightly. Joyce squeezes her hand and heads out to the car.


End file.
